Life's a mess, life's alright

Whether my life is a mess or not depends on 2 factors, first the time that

I wake up and second how much physical exercise I get during the day.

If I wake up after 8 am, the day is ruined, because it takes like 1 hour to

shower, make some food, eat something and get ready to go out, so when you go out is like 9 and morning is almost gone, day ruined.

If no strenuous physical activity gets done during the day it’s hard to sleep at night

either because of too much energy or because of feeling guilty for not exercising.

once those 2 requirements are met the rest doesn't really make much difference, if there is money or work, the country where i live, the people i hang out with, nothing of that would make any difference.

just need to make sure to start the day early and get the exercise out of the way as soon as possible, so that the rest of the day counts as a recovery time.

and can feel like everything's alright.

Some day

Someday I will be the one throwing coins into the fountain instead of

being the one picking them up

Someday I'll be the one driving people around instead of asking for a lift

I'll be the one providing food instead of asking for it

I'll be the one who can look after and mentor other people

I'll be the one dumping food instead of dumpster diving

Ok, no, that's wrong, I shouldn't throw food away

how about this:

someday I'll be the one growing food instead of scavenging for it

that's better

some day I'll be the one stealing the pot from the fish

ok that's also wrong

or maybe not so wrong?

well I'm not sure

I know the chinese fish for example they just want to gamble

they don’t care about equity, just want the rush of playing

so it's actually not so wrong, as you are giving them what they want

an experience

and isn't that what life's all about anyway, experiences, enjoying the ride, going all in and having fun

why do we have to worry about implied odds, rakeback, bankroll, cheap showdown, collision, etc. The fish doesn't worry about anything, they just play for fun

they have other sources of income so they can afford to go all in with a low hand

some day I'll be a fish

Hanging out with brits

 I've been feeling a bit bad when i was hanging out with some british friends the last couple of days

why is that?

because they always say stuff that make me feel very poor, we were talking about the train and they said "it's only 12 dollars" but i thought, as I always think,

12 dollars is a lot, it's not ONLY 12 dollars. As it was a very short train ride, less than 1 hour, that in other countries would cost 2 or 3 dollars, maybe 5, but not 12.

and then they said its just 50 bucks for a dorm room in a hostel. and again i thought, 50 dollars is a lot and saying bucks instead of dollars doesn't really make it sound much better.

well, probably it does make it sound cheaper for them, but not for the impartial observer.

I do understand they haven't traveled much and only know the prices in the UK and here, so they think everything is so cheap here, but actually new zealand is one of the most expensive countries in the world, so unless you're from the UK or maybe norway you're not gonna be able to afford 12 dollars for a short train ride into the city.

Because of that, I will make sure to never use that tone "it's only ... bucks" when I talk to someone unless I'm 100% sure the person I'm talking to has heaps more money than me and wont make them feel bad about how much money I have and how I think everything is so cheap here.

  

The source of happiness

Wish someone had told me this before, in my teenage years, when i was always depressed and felt lonely every day, wish someone had explained me how exercise works and the effect it has in our mood and in our daily life.

Bruno has been running 10km a day for the last couple months, and has actually never felt better.

Usually in the mornings, can take anything from 50 up to 70 minutes and

that would make Bruno feel happy the rest of the day.

10k sounds like nothing, its just one hour a day, but it's amazing the effect it has in life. to a point it feels empty without it, it feels like something's missing.

and I wish when i was 17 and feeling absolutely lost, someone had taken me for a run and showed me the source of happiness.

Just so that it's out there

If my memory doesn't fail me I think i was 14 when I learned that second hand smoke was actually much more harmful than smoking yourself.

Then I realized my mother had smoked inside the house, next to me for as long as I had memory.

She would bring all her friends home and they will all smoke nonstop next to me while i was in developing age to

make sure I wouldn't grow healthy and that i had respiratory and growth problems.

For the record, we are not taking about 1950's farmers who

just don't know any better, we are talking about educated people in the big city during the 90's, people who are very aware of the dangers of smoking for themselves

and for others, especially for children. 

Yet she just didn't care and spent almost 20 years smoking in front of me at every chance she had, even though

she knew i had asthma, and that was the single worst thing she could do to me.

So of course when i was old enough to understand what was going on around me,

I confronted her and asked her to stop. Not just for me but for herself and everyone around her.

What was her answer? Crying and screaming as if i was a criminal for asking her to quit. Saying that's not so bad and she didn't drink alcohol, so she had to smoke.

I've always wondered, what kind of logic was that? The fact that one doesn't drink allows you to ruin other people lives, and be a pain for everyone around you?

It keeps showing up in my nightmares sometimes, her long curly hair, shaking nervously and shouting hysterically while holding a cigarette called "derby".

Then she would cry and get violent, say she didn't have money, while everyone told her, maybe if you stopped spending it all on that vice of yours, to what she replied

"It’s my only pleasure in life."

Anyway, the years went by, asked her time and time again to quit, she didn't listen, sometimes said she would but never did.

When i was old enough, started taking the cigarettes away from her, as if she was a child, she would again cry and try to hide

them somewhere so that I couldn't find them.

Crazy, right? Or maybe I'm crazy for thinking smoking is bad.

Or for asking my mother to do something for me.

Or for trying to take care of her.

Or for trying to do the right thing.

Or for trying to change her.

It's been more than 10 years since then and till now I haven't had a single friend who was a smoker.

Met a few people here and there, but always avoided them and stayed away from them.

So if you're a smoker and you're reading this

I know you guys are just trying to look cool or something

maybe your excuse is that you are addicted or that all your friends smoke

maybe your excuse is that you have always smoked or that you don't drink so you have to smoke

you probably hate non smokers and don't care what i think

but now it's out there

I've had to take your smoke for almost 20 years

I've said what I think of you people

now all that's left is asking you to stay away from me

take your carcinogenic fumes somewhere else

because I've had enough of them

and I've had enough of you

About the pimsleur language program

What is pimsleur?

Is the reason why i can speak many languages.

but what is it?

an audio language learning program.

is it free?

of course

how to get it?

first download torrent, go to the pirate bay and type
pimsleur + the language you want to learn on the search bar, so if you want to learn turkish
you want to type: pimsleur turkish, order the results by number of seeders and open the ones who have more seeders with utorrent.

is there pimsleur for every language?

couple dozen


how many languages have you used it for?

so far portuguese, italian, french, german, japanese, korean and chinese.

How many lessons for each language?

there are 90 lessons for each language that would cover all the basics of grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, some culture notes and if you finish the 90 lessons you can get by on the language you are learning, then you just need to practice and use the vocab you learned.

how good is it compared to other language learning programs?

Pimsleur is a very systematic, very structured method, it gives you tons of very basic vocab and forces you to speak and make sentences.
there's no slang at all so it's like learning from a text book, you will learn to use a very neutral version of the language with neutral accent.
after you finish pimsleur I'd strongly recommend you to complement it with the 101series, chinese101, korean101, spanish101, and so on. they are great for learning slang and really useful vocabulary and expression that you wouldn't find on a text book, the 101 series are usually ongoing so it never finishes, as there is always new stuff to learn.
and once you're proficient on the language you are studying i'd recommend you the "in flight" series paired up with some word list, for vocabulary building. to download the 101, in flight, and word list is the same as for pimsleur: torrent, pirate bay, order by seeders, open with torrent.


are you stil using pimsleur this days?

No, because there was a problem with my last mp3 player.

what happened?

Well, it's a long story actually, I've had 4 mp3 players in my life, first it was a red one i got in spain, that one just stopped working by itself, then there was a pink one i got in spain also in 2006,
that one worked until 2009 and then also decided to stop working, then in china at school, our boss gave us a white one that was also mp4 player, problem was the storage was quite low so couldn't put much inside, that one got a virus and then the screen cracked while it was in the bag. and the last one that I had been using since 2009 till now was also the best one, it was blue and had a lot of space, like 6gb and it was very light and stylish  small, it was perfect. and I loved it because it had been a gift from Kishi, so I had kept it in my pocket and used it regularly for almost 4 years.
but while in NZ few weeks ago I was reviewing some korean lessons while on the way back through the park and I stumbled upon a fountain.
I always check the fountains at the park because many times they have coins that have either grown by themselves from the bottom of the fountain or have been dropped by some birds who were transporting them somewhere.
So I forgot I had the mp3 player on my jacket poket instead of the trouser's pocket, as the one in the jacket is on the sides, so you can put your hands in while you walk, and that makes things fall also. and the one in the trousers nothing can fall from there. SO what I did, I leaned to grab the coins and forgot about the mp3 player, so it slipped off my jacket pocket and fell into the water, ruining my week, lost one of my precious possessions just for a few coins.
so stupid.


Who is Kishi?

oh, very very cute chinese girl and very very sweet. We used to live together in china. she really loved me and treated my like a king.

What happened to her?

Nothing happened to her, she's still in china.

Do you miss her?

Maybe a bit sometimes, I have ambivalent feelings about it actually. On one hand I know she was just perfect for me, On the other hand she didn't really like my lifestyle of traveling and moving around, she wanted to stay in china for some reason. And I couldn't stay in china any longer, because well, I don't know how to say this nicely, but It's a shithole there.
I really loved her and if it had been any other country I'd had probably stayed with her, but not china.


But if you had really loved her you would have stayed with her anywhere, even china.

Have you even been to china?

No, just saying.

I thought we were takling about the pimsleur program.

This is more interesting.

I do think sometimes that I should have stayed there with her, but china... ufff.. it's the worst country ever. I had eventually got used to the air pollution, and the spitting, and the noise, and the people.
But the smoking is just too much, in the elevator, in the cinema, on the bus, at school, hospital, office, everywhere on the streets and places to eat, every single place, it's just too much.
I understand they are chinese and everything, but it's just too much.

Did you ask her to move to other country with you?

I begged her to, i wanted to take her anywhere, anywhere but china. And she said no, because she likes china and it's her home.

That's understandable, most people can't even consider your lifestyle, they can't just detach from everything and move somewhere else just because.

It's not just because it was to be with me.

I know, but why she has to be the one to make the sacrifice of moving abroad and you can't make the sacrifice of staying there.

That's why I said, if it had been any other country I would have probably stayed, just not china, and probably not india either.

Have you been to all the countries in the world?

Of course not.

So you will find that there are many places even worse than china and india, in africa for example. You should open your mind and be more open to different cultures, you should stay in china and make a life there with cute kishi.

I know you say that because you have never been to china.

But it's a big country and everywhere is different.

Slightly different, very slightly.

It's not the same being in hainan than in tianjin, they have desserts, mountains, valleys, they have everything there.

It's still china though.

I know but you said she got you an mp3 player and treated you like a king.

Still China.

China china china, yes, but the girl is more important.

and actually if I hadn't left i wouldn't be writing this right now, because the succession of events that lead to me getting a laptop and starting a blog happened BECAUSE I left china.

You don't know maybe it would have happened anyway.

Maybe not, and you wouldn't exist, so me leaving china is actually the reason you exist, so you should be happy I left, and you should be proud of me for keeping moving forward instead of getting stuck in a place I hate.

I just want you to be happy, and thought if the girl can make you happy the place shouldn't mind so much.

yes... but china... :(

I know, I know, don't worry, you don't need to go back there ever again, ok?

do you promise? :)

I promise.

And what about Kishi?

well you know kishi means river bank in japanese, and in the river there are many fish, you will meet a fish that doesn't need to be in china.

well, either that or I just get myself a new mp3 player

now we're talking!

Living in Asia as a vegetarian 1

How to survive in south and far east east asia as a vegan/vegetarian:

Japan:  Pretty tough. Fruits and veggies are crazy expensive, only affordable options are udon, katsu-udon but have to fish out some sea food from it, tempura, and foreign restaurants which cost at least twice as much as local ones. The only cheap supermarket is called "super tamade" where they sell lots of pre cooked vegetarian options, and of course sushi, tempura, saldas, at around 100 or 200 yen a tray. Hyaku en, 100 yen shops are your best friends to find some salads, fruits, drinks, noodles and many other stuff. It's pretty much same as a 7/11 but everything costs 100 yen. And as a last resource you can always throw away the inside thing of the onigiri and eat the rest.

Korea: Moderate. While eating out you have like 2 options, kimbab or bibimbab. While ordering kimbap make sure you say something like "ham bek chusaio" so they dont put ham on it. If you're not vegan there's always "Pizza school", they are everywhere and you can get a huge pizza for 5.000 won. Street food is alright, there's a fish shaped pastry that has red beans inside and is pretty cheap, often you can find tempura and fried veggies. They have many chige, which is like a stew or hot pot, sundobu chigae, or kimchi are good but you may have to take out some sea food from it.
Mr pizza could be the best value for money restaurant, they have salad buffet for 6.000 won, so all you can eat of saldas, fruits, some cold noodles and other stuff.

China: Fairly easy. Fruits and veggies are dime a dozen and they are everywhere, options are plenty, rice and noodles with vegetables everywhere, beans, vegetable bbq at night. They use almost no dairy while cooking, so very easy for vegans.

Taiwan: Very easy. By far best vegetarian food in east asia. Vegetarian restaurants everywhere, and most normal restaurants have at least a few vegetarian options. Great variety, affordable and extremely tasty. Even 7/11 are quite cheap and have fresh fruits and salads, noodles, vegetarian fried rice, vegetarian dumplings, fries, nuts, pastries, tofu and many other things.

Malaysia: Delicious indian food, samosa, curries, roti, paratha, puri, chapati, many dosas, delicious chinese vegetarian restaurants, delicious malay food, some fried noodles, rice with veggies, lost of street food and fruits. From penang, to melaka, to sabah, most dishes are delicious + juice bars + fruits everywhere.

Phillipines: Probably worst food in SE asia, there are some fruit markets and western food places, so it's possible to kind of get by on a vegetarian diet.

Laos: Rice with veggies + fruits.

Singapore: Same as malaysia, just more pricey.

Indonesia: Not as bad a phillipines, but local cuisine doesn't have much to offer for vegetarians, there's is gado gado and that's pretty much it. You may find some indian food in bali if you're lucky, but in sumatra, java or borneo you're going to eat your rice with veggies, every day + fruits :)

Living in Argentina as a vegetarian

I frequently tell people I grew up in Argentina, and one of the most frequent questions I'm asked is: "was it tough being a vegetarian there?"

Answer is always no.

Of course, we find there's a big meat eating culture there, but there are also many sub-cultures who chose to oppose it for some reason, so you've got the hippies, the SxE, the are krishna, the budhists, the hindu, the animals rights defenders, the environmentalists who do it for the planet and many other groups who have chosen not to eat meat.

That sumed up to the fact that many italians have migrated there during the last centuries, so pasta, pizza, ice cream, bread, everywhere, plenty of vegetarian buffets, choices are many.

To conclude, we can observe that during the last 20 years Argentina has seen, same as most developed countries, an increase in awareness regarding social, ethical and environmental issues, and finds itself slowly evolving towards a more humane, more compassionate society day by day.

What's your visa?

I met some north american friends the other day that are quite new to taiwan, and they couldn't stop laughing when I told them taiwanese people always ask me about my visa status.
Young and old people alike they are like really interested to know what visa foreigners have.


At the beginning i didn't understand why they were laughing, because after some years in asia I just got used to people asking about that, in japan. korea and taiwan people for some reason really need to know what your visa status is.


In south east asia they don't seem to care about that though.

Maybe people here need to make sure you're legally staying on the country or they want to see if you will stay a long time, or maybe it's to check your social status, so they can elitistly judge you by how much money you have, as people without the working visa can't work here, so they are automatically assigned a lower social status, either by being poor or by being forced by the system to work "illegally". Because sadly we live in a country where is illegal for human being to work without papers. And even more sadly is the fact that people here think that's right, because the government say so, and everything the government says is right.


People with a student visa are somehow under the wing of a recognized goernment institution in the country, making them decent citizens, as they are part of the system that helps maintain the status quo. Unless they got the visa attending a language school or private institute, instead of an university. In that case they are assigned the same social status as someone on a tourist visa.


People on a tourist visa, unless they are tourists, get placed in this underdog category, not yet a criminal but not someone they would like to hang out with either.



To conclude, in the eyes of taiwanese, korean, japanese people they use the visa question with this simple formula to judge the foreigners:

Working visa = Good people
Student visa = Good people (unless it's from a language school)
Any other visa = Bad people


Coming back to the laughs though, first I didn't get it, but then I saw how ridiculous it sounded, because they sound like policeman when they ask you that. And because as a foreigner myself, if somebody comes to the country I live, It would never even cross my mind to ask them about their visa, but maybe also times have changed now and I've been a foreigner for too long, got used to that and started seeing it as normal, or just the way it is.

But when we meet someone from another culture they help us see things from a different perspective, and sometimes no words are needed, but a a rapid honest laugh can make us understand how flawed our position really is.

Flash mob

Inmate 1: So, why are you here?

Inmate 2: I killed 8 people

Inmate 1: crazy! how?

Inmate 2: headshot

Inmate 1: but, why?

Inmate 2: well, it's complicated, i thought they were zombies

Inmate 1: and they weren't?

Inmate 2: they were normal teenagers, it was a zombie flash mob, so they were dressed as zombies
and acting as them, but they were normal people

Inmate 1: so it was all a big misunderstanding then

Inmate 2: pretty much


Inmate 1: the judge didn't see it that way?

Inmate 2: no, he said I should have known


Inmate 1: he didn't considered that you're too old to know what
 flash mob even means, or that young people would do those things

Inmate 2: exactly


Inmate 1: have you declared yourself insane?

Inmate 2: no, but I admitted i made a mistake, said it wouldn't happen again,
but it wasn't enough for them.

Inmate 1: not a very forgiving society

Inmate 2: they believe in punishment, they even want to punish you for
something you didn't even know was a mistake

Inmate 1: how could you have known?

Inmate 2: that's what I said, I was hoping to become a hero
or maybe not that, but I was thinking about surviving, you know when you
see zombies you start thinking that your species has to survive and if you don't
kill them your species would go extinct.

Inmate 1: basic biology

Inmate 2: Yes, it was my self preserving instinct that triggered and
I was just doing what had to be done in to enssure the continuity of my species

Inmate 1: our species

Inmate 2: flash mob...

Inmate 1: pfff...

Inmate 2: how about you? why are you here?

Inmate 1: I killed 6 people

Inmate 2: were they zombies too?

Inmate 1: no, they just pissed me off

Inmate 2: fair enough

Wearing old clothes

Few days before I left Argentina to go to Spain to see Gustavo, he said: Bring only the new clothes you have, leave all the old ones and broken ones behind.

Now some years later I find myself doing exactly the opposite.

If clothes look too new I feel guilty for wearing them, because I always feel I should be wearing old torn clothes and sleeping in the park with the homeless where I belong.

Can't go asking for a ride or food with new clothes, because they will think I don't really need them and just want to get stuff for free. That if I can afford those clothes, I can probably also pay for the bus or food.

Old clothes have a history, you've done so much with them and know they wont let you down. New ones I look at them and think "what should I do with this?" They look so delicate 'm afraid of losing them, breaking them, or wearing them.

And again I feel guilty, because of the environmental damage that was caused to produce, transport and distribute those new clothes. When I know we already have everything we need. Don't need to make new stuff, just need to lean how to share the ones we already have :)

Hiding stuff

Friend: Where's your stash?

Bruno: I'm not gonna tell you.


Friend: You should.

Bruno: Why?

Friend: Well, during the years that you have been moving around, sometimes you've come to accumulate stuff you couldn't take with you when you left, so had to be hidden somewhere. You wouldn't just give them to a friend, because you don't want to be a burden or trouble other people with your stuff. You know they also have to move around and can't be carrying your stuff around. You wouldn't pay a storage room because you're a cheap bastard and most times are not even sure if you'll come back to that country. So they have to be hidden somewhere.

Bruno: There may be some stuff here and there, but why would I leave something valuable behind? Why not just selling it and taking the money with me?

Friend: Well maybe you had to leave on a rush and didn't have time to sell it, maybe they were too bulky or inconvenient to sell, maybe it was something illegal, or something that's not valuable yet but maybe be in 50 years time. Or maybe something that could get you into trouble if you go through customs with it. Knowing you I wouldn't be surprised if you had 100 dolars in pennies buried somewhere because you know price of copper is always on the rise. Or some antiques, something. Maybe it's like an insurance for when you're old.

Bruno: But then that would occupy space on my memory, I have to remember the location of the stuff, the location of the key or the password.

Friend: So there's a key and a password, we're getting somewhere now.

Bruno: And if I tell someone it wouldn't be a secret anymore.

Friend: Was it a gym locker?  Was it a chest buried on some beach?

Bruno: Maybe.

Friend: If you die nobody will find it, ever, because you haven't told anyone about it.

Bruno: Well, if I die, you don't need to worry about it anymore.

Friend: I think you would hide it in nature, because a man made structure is much more likely to be destroyed, searched or rebuilt, a beach, forest, or rock in the other hand would probably be there for a while. It should be somewhere near some places you used to live, a familiar location, a place you know better than anyone. A place you've walked by hundreds of times, you are always searching for a place to sleep at night in case you need to, a place covered, private, and always searching for the perfect spot to hide something in case you have to.

Bruno: It's probably just some old books and clothes, you shouldn't worry so much about it.

Friend: Yeah, you're right.

Bruno: Or maybe not.

Friend: Damn.

Christmas message

Please help me spread an anti-consumerist, anti-capitalist message on this christmas.

Don't buy anything.

Recycle gifts.

We all have stuff at home we don't need.

Give them away as presents on christmas.

Bake a cake.

Write a letter.

Write a song.

Make your own gifts.

Your friends will appreciate them more because they were made by you instead of a 12 years old phillipino.

The reason why there are still poor people in the world is because you guys buy lots of stuff you don't need.

And you never seem to have enough, you always want more and more.

Thus contributing to the capitalist monetary system which fuels income inequality.

And makes sure the rich stay rich, the poor stays poor.

And the ones in the middle, like most people reading this, stay in the middle.

Being slaves of the system and working together with the rich to make sure the poor stays poor.

But, If for whatever reason you need to buy something.

Buy organic, so you wont get sick.

Buy locally, from the small family shop instead than the shopping mall or supermarket.

Buying locally produced products also reduces the carbon footprint caused by shipment.

It's also a great time to becoming vegan or vegetarian, in order to spare some pain to your fellow animal creatures as well.

And to the environment.


If we all stop using money the system will just collapse by itself.

Making way to something better.

Hopefully.

El ente ratonero

What does Bruno talks about?

He complains, a lot. Sometimes he talks about religions and complains because they are retarded, sometimes he talks about politics and politicians and complains because they are corrupted AND retarded.

Sometimes he blames the government for his misery. Actually he complains about many things as if he was an old cranky miserable lonely human being.

And sometimes, like today,  he takes some time to talk about the ente, ese ente mendocino, el ente trabajador.
Ese ente ratonero, lo habian visto comerse las palomas y los ratones, los ratones con caparazon.
El ente caravanero, lo han visto con sombrero Y cantando una cancion. Si se va de tiroteos nadie le llama la atencion.

Era un ente callejero, vive en la calle aragon, aragon y trapo viejo, a la vuelta del camaron.

Camaron canino, del camion con frio, leia la senial viajera del atardecer vacio, en una tarde fria, fria y calurosa, miraba la mariposa que aparecio en el camino del tercer desvio.

Una tarde de enero, de enero y abril, el ente se alborotaba, al haber perdido el alfil, en una partida de poker con su amigo don quijote mientras buscaban una particula, particula de higgs boson que se habia perdido en el casco vacio.

Mi experiencia con el ente de verano no ha sido una positiva, el ente de la cancion no ha tenido compasion en demostrar conocimiento para encontrar higgs boson.

El caso del ente, no es negativo, negativos son los exponentes que dictan la externalidad, de un problema muy conplejo que no tiene finalidad.

And that's because of the ente, who's story shall not be told, by any man or woman who's bishop has long been gone.

New year's resolutions

• Becoming the spokesman of an anti-tobacco campaign in taiwan.
• 30 pull ups in a row (I'm at 15 now).
• Bench press my own weight plus 30kg.
• Do some volunteer work for at least half of the year.
• Get down to 10% body fat. 
• Embracing dubstep, or maybe not.
• Moving to russia and earning a living there by doing something illegal.
• Becoming more self aware.
• Not teaching English.
• Keep practicing yoga every day.
• Reducing the use of public transport to the very minimum, relying on bicycles, hitchhiking, walking and any other non-polluting ways of transport.
• Keeping the consumption of resources to a very minimum by trying not to spend any money in goods or services.
• Becoming less secretive and sharing my thought and my life with others (like I'm doing now)
• Shaping my thoughts into something easy to understand and assimilate by the average person.
• Play less videogames if at all.
• Work less for money if at all.
• Care less about money and trying to live without it.
• Drink more wine, have more sex.
• Write less emails, talk to people more.
• Spend more time outdoors, less time indoors.
• Ditch technology and get back in touch with nature.
• Help fighting for a world without money, crime, religions or poverty.
• Understanding russian people.
• Learning more useful skills.
• Breaking all the unfair laws.
• Start using the japanese keyboard instead of always typing romanji.
• Learning more chinese characters and stop relying on pinyin.
• Typing in korean at least once a week.
• Getting back in touch with some old friends in germany and argentina.
• Being less logical more imaginative, less rational, more creative, less scientific, more artistic.
• Keeping things in balance, a bit of this and a bit of that
• Instead of worrying about why is the world so messed up, doing my part to change it.
• Stop saying "the" world, "the" planet, finding a better way.
• Kissing a guy at an anti-gay parade.
• Burning a flag at a politician's speech, government event or national holiday.
• Opposing the establishment, disobeying  questioning authority always and breaking as many laws as possible, without hurting anyone in the process of course.  
• Taking the stairs instead of the escalator, always.
• Acquiring regular sleep patterns.
• Organizing and taking part in some peaceful protests and demonstrations.
• Remaining peaceful, embracing non-violence always, even when violence is used against us.
• Becoming famous and using my fame to overthrow putin's government.

About ADAM.

Bruno: I have a problem.

Friend: Just one?

Bruno: People look at me weird.

Friend: Which people?

Bruno: On the streets.

Friend: Well, they must have found out about "My little pony: friendship is magic".

Bruno: How would they? I don't think is that.

Friend: Oh, they know.

Bruno: No, but really, why do they are always staring at me, am I that weird?

Friend: No, just a bit paranoid, we're all a little weird though.

Bruno: I wonder when did it all started?

Friend: *start. 

Bruno: Start.

Friend: You mean the weirdness?

Bruno: Yeah, was it in highschool?

Friend: Probably.

Bruno: Or was it because of /b/?


Friend: Yeah, that didn't help.

Bruno: Come to think of it, actually I know who to blame, there were the people from ADAM. Matias, ariel, damian, nestor, and others whose names i have chosen to forget. 

Friend: Remind me what ADAM stands for again.

Bruno: It's spanish for: Asociacion defensa de anime y manga, it was a very very strange place in argentina, were I used to hang out as a teenager. It was cool, except it was not.

Friend: Interesting, so you think that's were it all started. Tell me more about it, for example, how did you end up there in the first place?

Bruno: Alright you're sounding like a psychologist now, bit creepy.

Friend: Anyway..

Bruno: Anyway, it's a long story. It all started back when I was still in highschool, sick and tired of getting bullied at school decided to try and make some new friends with similar interests as me.

Friend: And what led you to break free from the bulling.

Bruno: Mostly it was the last scene of the last episode of evangelion, do you remember?

Friend: It's been more than 10 years, no, I don't remember.

Bruno: Yeah you remember, when Shinji stood up, chair falls backwards, glass shatters, tears in my eyes, I stood up too, tingly feeling, smile, cry. That episode stayed with me till now. Stayed with us until now.

Friend: Right, back to ADAM though.

Bruno: Yeah, so after I watched that I thought I had to find people similar to me, and thought, what are my interests? i wasn't good at anything, didn't like music or anything, just watched tv the whole day, japanese tv...


Friend: You mean, japanese cartoons.

Bruno: Yeah, that was all I had, that was my only interest, so I tried to look for people who like the same things, thought they would understand me.

Friend: Did they?

Bruno: Yeah, well no, sometimes, not really, well it was weird. Before going there I thought I had some  issues, once there i thought 'oh boy?' what did I get myself into? who are these people? 


Friend: What happened?

Bruno: Well before going there I thought I was socially awkward, but these people, ufff... they were the same as me, or worse, so i finally knew what it was like to hang out with myself and understood why i had no friends.

Friend: That's good you had finally found people like you, right?

Bruno: Yeah, so they took me under their wings and into into their basements, they nurtured me and taught me how to play pokemon cards, magic, d&d and many rol playing games and suddenly i found myself knee deep into this underground culture i had no idea it  even existed and suddenly, suddenly I had group of friends, a very weird one, but friends at last. I had people to hang out with, people who called me at home and i could call and talk to. And they broke all the molds.

Friend: How come?

Bruno: Well you know how usually most friends or groups of friends they get together for a few hours once or few times a week, well with this guys we would hang out for at least 2 days in a row, sometimes 3 or 4, no break 24/7, and we would do the craziest things, things you have never even heard of or dreamed of.

Friend: Like what?

Bruno: It's hard to explain, but it was intense. Spending one day with them was like spending a month of a normal person's life and we would usually get together on a friday after school and hang out until monday morning that we had to go back to school.

Friend: So that's when thing started to get weird?

Bruno: yeah, then I broke off that group and started getting into other groups of people even weirder, then i moved to other city and met even more weird people, it all added up.

Friend: And what  happened to those people?

Bruno: I've got no idea, probably they are still there.

Friend: Wouldn't you like to get back in touch with them?

Bruno: Well, it's been so many years and we have all changed so much I guess, have no idea what could happen, maybe they grew tentacles or something. But you know, that time in argentina it was just a stage of my life, like many others, usually every country is a different stage and I feel like I have to leave them behind in order to keep moving forward in life. I always remember what Robin said 'the future is scary, but you can't run back to the past just because it's familiar'.

Friend: So you wouldn't like to hang out with them again in like lets say 10 years from now?

Bruno: Why not? You know after that. I've played rol playing games and card games in other countries with other people, and it was very very different from my experiences in argentina. People I've played with in other countries were just normal people, with jobs, friends and families, no mental disorders and normal life outside the few hours we got together to play usually once a week, but people in argentina were unique in the sense the game was our lives, and those things stay with you forever, to this day I still remember the names of some of the characters we used to play as. We were even creating our own games and rules, the creativity levels in that group were way over 9000.

Friend: That sounds indeed quite intense. Are you ok?

Bruno: Yeah, just got a bit a excited.

Friend: You're not crying are you? 

Bruno: Not today no.

16 Reasons to pee in a bottle

When you need to go you need to go, that's a fact, so today I bring you a list of practical excuses for those times when heading all the way to the toilet is just not an option.

1_ It's too cold outside: 

Have you ever been to -45 degrees? No? Me neither. But I have a friend from Russia that has, and he told me it's too cold out there and he just can't be bothered to get off bed, so he always keeps a handy plastic bottle next to his bed for when nature calls. And so should you.

2_ The bathroom is just too far: 

Do you have a very big house? No? Well, doesn't matter, because you don't need to live in a castle to justify peeing in a bottle, a flight of stairs will do just fine, or long hallway. Remember, if it's not in your room it's too far, so you need the bottle.

3_ If you go then you will not be tired anymore: 

Because the act of getting up will put your whole body in motion and ready to rumble, the change of temperature between your bed and the outer world is enough to keep you up all night after you come back from the toilet and you can't afford that because you have that big meeting at work tomorrow, remember? Better not risking it, play it safe, use the bottle.

4 _ The bathroom floor is too cold: 

Because winter came, and you forgot to buy some slippers to wear in the bathroom and now it's too late, winter is half way gone already so you missed your chance to enjoy the sleepers. But don't worry it was a mistake, it can happen to anyone, you're only human remember? Next year you'll get some new sleepers at the beginning of winter like it should be, this year better stick to the bottle.

5 - There are guests in the house: 

It seems your flatmate has some some friends over, but you are just not feeling all that sociable today, you don't want to introduce yourself and meet new people, and answer all their stupid questions about work or study. Not tonight, tonight you just want to pee (In a bottle) and go to bed.

6_ Is not your house: 

OK, picture this, you've met a girl, she seems to like you for some reason, so she invited you over to meet her parents. You don't want to make a mess in her bathroom, what if you miss the toilet? You don't want to pee all over her floor. Better wait for the mother to go to the kitchen to bake some cookies, check there are no hidden cameras, find a dark corner, take the empty bottle you are always carrying in your backpack for an emergency like this one and do what it needs to be done for this relationship to work. Remember, your grandkids will thank you for this.

7- You are watching and interesting documentary on whale reproduction: 

Did you know that blue whales have the largest penises on Earth? When its aroused it can get as big as 12 inches in diameter and ten feet in length, you know what that means? No? Why not? Oh, yeah, you're not from the US so you're not familiar with the retarded imperial measurement system?
Don't despair! what I meant was that the whale's gonna need a really really big bottle, and so will you because tonight you're not getting off the couch.

8_ It's too late to flush the toilet: 

Unless you come from the future (or from the past), our toilets this days make this terrible noise when you flush them and It usually wakes everyone up, and pardon the pun when i say they could get pissed-off.

9_ You are very afraid: 

It's too dark and you have just watched and horror film, that one with the zombies and the serial killer, you don't want to go all the way to the toilet by yourself, at night. What if you get murdered? What if you get raped? What if you get murdered AND raped? Why taking the risk? Pee in the bottle

10_ There is someone using the bathroom: 

Why they always have to go at the same time you have to go, you guys should start taking turns for it, next time you can discuss the matter thoroughly, this time though better use the bottle

11_ The toilet is out of service

Not just out of service, I'm pretty sure I saw some plumber coming in to fix some stuff, you don't want to bother him while he's working, you don't want to be in his way. I know he probably doesn't even mind, but it's just polite to wait until he's done, and actually you are pretty lucky because there' happens to be an empty plastic container right here, you can use until the man finishes his work.

12_ The bathroom is haunted:

You know you've been hearing some weird noises lately, what are they? Ghosts, aliens, monster? It could be anything really. We don't know what's out there, what we do know is that he's hiding in the bathroom, waiting to do something really really bad to you, better using the bottle this time.

13_ Because of a medical problem:

Have you broken your ankle and its to painful to walk? No? Stepped on a Lego? Maybe you felt dizzy when you stand up, do you have asthma and don't want to get too excited? Headache, depression, broken nail? Anything will do, you know what to do.

14_ You are single: 

Because you know when you get a girl she may not like this little habit of yours, so this are actually your last years of freedom, might as well enjoy them because after this you'll probably be have to get up in the middle of the dark cold night and, half asleep, hike your way to the bathroom like an animal. Enjoy it while it lasts, bottle.

15_ It's too dangerous: 

The truth is there are a lot of dangerous objects on the way to the toilet. You don't want to hit your little toe with the sharp edge of a wall or furniture. You don't want hit your forehead with the frame of the door. You don't want to trip, break your spine and spent the rest of your life on a wheelchair.. For your safety and that of those around we strongly recommend you peeing in the bottle.

16_ Just can't be bothered, enough said.

Your government is bad and you should feel bad

Today I was sitting in the park enjoying a relaxing day when a guy comes and starts smoking his cigarette near me while blowing the smog in my direction of course.

It's not the first time, and it's not because I'm in asia. Of course in asia everything gets intensified because there are many more people, but I've been having that problem pretty much all my life everywhere.

Same happens when I ride my bicycle every day, you get all the motorbikes and cars in front of you blowing you their toxic fumes, and even though I try to be health conscious and live a healthy life I have to breath waste, because yeah, people have to drive cars, right? and people have to smoke in the park, right?

So i leave the park, start walking and again thinking who's fault is it that i have to breath toxic gases every day, is it the guy who smokes or drives the car? No, because they don't think for themselves, they are a no more than a product of their environment.

The guy would had probably been smoking a grasshopper, it had been properly advertised and introduced into his environment, as for the guy who was driving a fossil fuel powered car, he would would be definitely driving a solar or electric car if it it was readily and conveniently available to him.

Is it the people who had educated them or lead them to think that making the air dirty and causing cancer to others and to themselves was the right thing to do? was the person who sold them the car or tobacco? was the one who produced it and allowed for its promotion and distribution? Yes of course they were but only to some degree, as for most of them, they are, same as the final consumer, just a product of poorly designed, poorly managed system.



A system where if I feed the poor it's good, but if I ask why the poor has no food and how can we change that, they will call me a communist, or an anarchist, or tell me I'm against the government, well of course I'm against the government and so should you.

So should you if you care about any other person besides yourself, or if you care about the animals or the environment. because your government knows it's idiotic that the world still runs on fossil fuel while we have so many other clean energy sources, It's not like we have one or two, we have more than 10, hydrogen, solar, tidal, wave, nuclear fusion, hydroelectric, wind, geothermal, radiant energy, biomass, etc. and your government knows it, yet they don't implement them.

I remember once while hitchhikinhg in finland some 5 years ago, got picked up by a driver who was driving a water powered car, he had been working on it for 20 years and showed me the whole mechanism and how it worked.

It was very strange for me as i had never seen anything like that, so i asked him of course why doesn't he share it with the world, so he told me the story about how they took his friend that had helped him develop it, and how all the people who develop renewable energy powered cars seem to just mysteriously vanish from the face of the earth, told me stories of some famous russians and north americans who had been taken together with their inventions.

Of course i didn't believe him, so when i got home i googled everything and it seemed he was right, everyone who tried to share it had disappeared.

Back to the park though, i keep walking and what do I see? The same thing i see every day, lots of office buildings, and construction sites (where they are always building new office buildings), the area is called Nangang, the city, Taipei.


Have you ever wanted to sit in an office for 10 hours a day? No? Me neither, but that seems to be the taiwanese dream right now, a business related job. If you have that job you are consider to be a successful person here.

Basically, most of the times, sitting in front of a computer, sending a few emails, making a few phone calls and doing some paper work, and that is in fact the idea that taiwanese have of a successful person.

It's just a trend of course, and it changes every decade, before it was engineer, before medicine and in 10 years it will be something different.

This people say they like money and they do it for the money, yet most of the times they barely make enough to survive. They don't really have much money but in their mind is all money money money.


Of course i tried to tell this people to ride a bicycle instead of car, to stop smoking, that money doesn't make people happy and that success is measured by how we interact and thrive within our environment,  instead of being measured by how we trash things up or by how much time we spend in a office causing  some trouble to others.

And what do I get for that? They look at me like I'm a lunatic and belong in a mental asylum or, like I come from mars and speak the tongue of my people. Others will say "you just don't understand the real world" or "that's how the world works".

"That's just how the world works" it is after all, just a phrase assholes use to justify doing awful things,  but what to say to this people who think they live in the "real world"? Well it's my world too, I also live in the real world and I'm tired of you and your government polluting the air I breath, the water I drink and poisoning the food i eat.

Air and water are like the very basic thing you should be trying to protect, if not for you at least for your descendants, instead of that you are a trashing machine. As soon as you wake up you make sure during the day you can cause as much pain and trouble to me and to your environment as possible.

First in your car when you go to work making my air dirty, then at work creating some sort of bureaucracy or paperwork to make my life more difficult while making sure you contribute to the waste of resources and the destruction of my planet in as many ways as you can.

Well, you know what people from nangang? I'm sick and tired of you, and your office buildings and your cars,  and your construction workers building more offices and your factories building more cars.

And even though nobody living in Nangang is reading this right now, and that person smoking in the park was probably not even aware he was polluting my air, this post will remain here, on the internet, as a silent protest from a person who always feels like he has no voice in this profoundly sick community.

One that, for the record, I feel very ashamed of belonging to.

Seba and TV

Seba joined a group of people that think TV will cease to exist.

No one said TV will not exist anymore, but no one denied it either and the group is based on a series of assumptions that say that TV will serve the same faith as the monocle.

Basically because it's a single function device, and we live in an era where everything has many functions, like the smart phone, the tablet, the computer, you can already watch TV and do a million other stuff on them.

That's why not many people wear wristwatches anymore, because they only do one thing.

So this group, what they do, they watch lots of TV every day, just in case they can't watch it anymore in the future.

That's like spending lots of time with the elevator man, because you know the elevator will be automated and you wont be seeing him anymore.

The other face of religion

Spending some time in taiwan has really changed my view on many many topics, society, politics, religion, etc

Religion here is some mixture of taoism and bushism with many gods and temples everywhere, and something like 90% of taiwanese people believe in some kind of something.

I had the chance to visit many of this temples and seeing people's faces while they pray usually makes me smile, not in a condescending way, but in a pure and humble one, like when seeing children playing, or cute puppies.

Usually when they have some trouble in their life they will go to the temple, offer some food or money, light some incense, and say their prayers.

Now there's nothing strange about that, most asian countries do something similar, and I'd seen the same countless times in india, thailand, etc. 

But the way they do it here is special.

There's such a peace and serenity while they pray, so much devotion and happiness.

In my case, and I assume is the same for most westerners, when we hear the word religion we think: terrorism, hate, war, pedophilia, child abuse, corruption, brainwashing, censorship, racism, homophobia, massacres, bigotry, fanaticism, ignorance, etc.

But when I see people's faces while praying here in taiwan, or the monks cleaning and taking care of the temples, I think to myself: this is what religion should be about, well, kind of.

About taiwan

Friend: Hey! How's life in Taiwan?

Bruno: Not bad, not bad at all, you know actually the main reason why I've always wanted to come here was that some of the best people I've met in my life were originally from here.

Friend: So people are nice there?

Bruno: As nice as they come

Friend: How about the weather?

Bruno: It's extremely hot of course, but I can adapt.

Friend: I thought you hated the heat.

Bruno: Well, it's just for a few months, I can manage.

Friend: You know I think I don't even know where Taiwan is.

Bruno: It's just some tiny island south east of china.

Friend: Is it part of china?

Bruno: Yes, of course, well..  no, not really, well, yes it is part of china, except because is not part of china.

Friend: What do you mean?

Bruno: It is part of china, except because they have their own language, their own culture, their own currency, their own government, chinese can't come here without a visa.

Friend: It sounds like it's not really part of china.

Bruno: Well, you know how politics work (they don't) so if you ask a chinese they will say taiwan is part of china, if you ask a taiwanese they will say it's not, it's a different country, and technically they are both right.

Friend: How is that possible?

Bruno: They made it in a way that it's part of china and it's also not part of china.

Friend: I'm getting confused now.

Bruno: Some countries accept it as a country some don't, so it just depends on who you ask, add some corruption, a few government conspiracies there and you got taiwan.

Friend: Fair enough, good to hear you like it there though.

Bruno: Yeah, it's nice to  be here.

Ready to die 2

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of death.

I learned that life is fragile, and unless you're a very basic form of life, for most of us advanced organism with many cells and organs, there's only one.

So we gotta make the most of it, right? Or does it even matter?

Life is so fragile that if a bus hits me while I'm crossing the street I will die and everything I did all this years will not matter at all.

Whether I build a space station or stay at home masturbating every day for 20 years will make no difference whatsoever, because I will close my eyes and will never open them again, pretty mind blowing right?

Now that's not a valid excuse to stay at home masturbating I know, if everyone thought like that we wouldn't get anywhere, but it's hard to know that all the things you've accumulated all this years will be gone.

I'm not talking about material things of course, but about knowledge and experience, all the things you've done and thing's you've learned, the people you've met, gone just like that, the bus hits you and that's it.

Maybe the bus doesn't hit you, maybe it's just a bicycle, it hits your chest and a rib punctures a lung, or you get some internal bleeding, or you step on something and break your neck. Our bodies are so fragile, that every day we could die in a million different ways.



In japan some people go to die at the Aokigahara forest, many others jump in front of the train, some jump from the window at work or at school.

Up to 30.000 japanese kill themselves every year, that's one every 15 minutes.

Around 15.000 a year in south korea, so like 1 every half an hour.

And that's just 2 countries.

Sociologists and psychologists say the causes of suicide are usually stress, competition, social pressure and emotional isolation, but i wonder is it really that, or those people realized it didn't really matter when they die.

That either now or in a few years or when they are old, but they will have to die, there's no way around it. So they chose to do it sooner.

In the animal kingdom there are only a few insects that can willingly take their own lives for no apparent reason. Most of them try to adapt to their environment, to the food they find, to the weather, to some stimuli.

But not us, some humans, specially some japanese humans will jump from the building, just like that.


That reminds me of once I did bungee jumping in china, I was so scared, and they had to push me.


How can some people do it without getting pushed I can't understand.

Plant a seed

Making a comment on facebook or some other website is like plating a seed, you put something there and maybe it will grow, maybe not, like auctioning something on ebay, maybe you get money, maybe not, you never know.

The wait is nice though, makes you hope for something, give you something to look forward to, specially if you have no life outside the internet.

And the best is planting the seeds before going to sleep and checking if they grew when you wake up.

Most times they don't grow of course, but it gives us something to keep ourselves busy with, us people with no life.

Find an excuse

Friend: Why do you travel?

Bruno: I don't travel, I'm always in taipei.

Friend: So why did you travel before, were you trying to find something?

Bruno: Not really, but you know sometimes you pretend you are looking for something, but actually you just want to have fun looking for it, if you find or not doesn't really make any difference.

Friend: How's that?

Bruno: Well it's like some people when you ask them while are they still single, they say they are searching or waiting for the right person, when actually they are having a great time looking for that person and trying different partners to see if some fits them, or another example are people who go to college or university, they don't do it to get a piece of paper like a diploma after many years, they go there for the parties, for the clubs, the environment, to be away from their parents, because they know they will make friends for life there and hook up with lots of people, you see in the end they had so much fun in college that the paper doesn't really matter at all, it was just an excuse to do something fun.

Same goes for me.

I don't want to achieve anything and not looking for anything, sometimes  just find excuses for doing what i want. for example when i went to germany i signed up for the language school there, just to tell people i do something, but the school was only 2 hours a day and i didn't learn much, life in berlin was, on the other hand, probably one of the best times of my life.

Friend: Got it, so first i have find an excuse to do what i want, and then i can do it.

Bruno: Yeah well, it has to be a socially accepted idea, for people with narrow minds, so should be either work, study or travel, you can not just say you're going to romania to find dracula or going to russia to build a time machine, people will look at you like "what?" it has to be something they can understand and relate to at the same time

Friend: Work, study or travel, got it.

Bruno: Anything else?

Friend: I think that's it for today.

Bruno: Alright then.

tide goes in

Tim will be coming to taipei next week, he's a really funny guy but doesn't know it.

He's funny because he always makes the "tide goes in tide goes out face".

Not many people would recognize that face though, Tim surely doesn't.

But it looks really funny when he does it.